Mary Bartowski
Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, née Gunter was the estranged wife now widow of Stephen Bartowski, and the mother of Chuck and Ellie Bartowski. She was a CIA agent assigned to bring down Volkoff Industries, which had her leave the family while Chuck was in the fifth grade. She is portrayed by actress Linda Hamilton. Pre-Series Mary left her family under unknown circumstances when Chuck was in the fifth grade; with just their father to look after them. It is revealed in , that Chuck blames himself for her leaving; citing the breaking of her necklace as the cause. Her full name was only revealed in the Season Three finale; when Chuck is led to her file by his father in a video message sent after his death. In the first two seasons Mary was entirely unseen, though her departure was occasionally mentioned. Chuck tells Sarah that the day their mother left is the day he and Ellie learned to look after each other because their father was "never really there", a date they celebrate as "Mother's Day". Chuck would later give Sarah a charm bracelet that belonged to Mary as a Christmas gift during a hostage crisis at the Buy More. Stephen had previously given the bracelet to Mary when she was pregnant with Ellie and Sarah reluctantly accepted it, despite her thoughts of it being something Chuck should give to a "real girlfriend". Mary first appeared on-screen in . After Stephen's death, he leaves Chuck a video message stating that he was working against an as-of-yet unidentified threat in which Mary was somehow involved. Chuck is directed to go to his child hood home where he finds his dad's secret base which has a box labeled "MARY ELIZABETH BARTOWSKI: MISSING". During this, somewhere a woman is working when she receives a phone call, informing her that "they" are going to have to move her immediately. When the camera angle changes, it is revealed that the woman is wearing the majority of Mary's necklace as a bracelet. Series In , it is revealed that Mary used to read Chuck a bedtime story called "The Frost Queen", the title character of which was the basis of Mary's codename: "Frost". Although the circumstances were not yet clear then, it was assumed that Mary never actually left her family, but instead had been captured at some point ending up in the custody of Volkoff Industries. More information about Mary is revealed by Heather Chandler in , where she reveals that she and Mary had met at "Opeation Beacon". In , it is revealed she is Volkoff's head enforcer; Volkoff's right hand sent in to make any problems "disappear". Her weapon of choice is a 9mm Berreta 90two with a 15 round double stack magazine. Mary resurfaces in , after having contacted Chuck in the previous episode. Following a tense confrontation with Sarah which Chuck defuses and where Mary claims to be operating under "deep cover" for a CIA project codenamed "Isis", Mary offers up Dr. Stanley Wheelwright and a nightmare-inducing toxin he is producing for Volkoff as it is too dangerous to be allowed into the wrong hands. However after a series of double and triple-crosses in which she ultimately aids the team in capturing Wheelwright, Mary's ultimate allegiance remains unknown, and she is apprehended by Sarah and Casey without Chuck's involvement or prior knowledge. As the ambiguity persists into , Mary convinces Chuck to seek out her MI6 handler, Gregory Tuttle (Timothy Dalton), who can provide intelligence clearing her name. Later when she finds out Chuck had been captured by Volkoff's agents during an attempt to meet with Tuttle, she agrees to help Sarah and Casey locate him after a deal brokered by Morgan to meet Ellie. During the meeting, she provides carefully worded hints to aid Ellie in locating a possible hidden message Stephen had left for her in the event of his death. After Chuck, Sarah and Tuttle recovered the MI6 data to prove her alliance, she accompanied Chuck and Sarah back to their old home and Stephen's hidden base, where she apparently betrayed them once again when Sarah and Chuck find out that the MI6 data they found was empty. Mary flashed Chuck with a device that apparently neutralized the Intersect, allowing her to capture the pair alongside Tuttle, who immediately himself revealed to be the notorious Volkoff. However, as Volkoff set the charges to destroy Stephen's base and the many intelligences he had, Mary surreptitiously slipped Sarah a razor to allow them to escape later on, and asked her to protect her son. Relationship with Volkoff Mary's relationship with Alexei Volkoff (Timothy Dalton was strictly professional at first when she was assigned by the CIA to bring down the network. However, there may have been complications throughout the decades as Volkoff later began to develop feelings towards her. Mary however did not feel the same way, as after her true affiliation has been compromised, she tells Volkoff that "Stephen will always be ten times a better man than you", followed by her extreme disgust when he kissed her. In , Mary is seen in Volkoff's base of operations in Moscow, Russia. She is briefed by Volkoff on an assignment to assassinate Chuck, whom Volkoff is unaware is actually her son. In Burbank, Mary kills the three assassins from Volkoff who attempted to kill Chuck. She is brought to Castle for interrogation as Volkoff immediately discovers three of his men dead and that Mary is missing. Volkoff himself assaults the Buy More with his operatives, and threatens to blow up Castle, killing every CIA and NSA agents below the store along with Mary if they do not give her to them. After Chuck and Sarah escort her to the store, Chuck is about to be killed by Volkoff. Mary tells him to let go of him as Chuck is her son. Mary and Volkoff later joins Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, and Devon for their late thanksgiving dinner. Volkoff attempts to impress Mary by showing her that he can in fact love her her two children. As Ellie and Devon leave the dinner under a faked hospital emergency call, Sarah and Chuck attempt to assault Volkoff, only to be surrounded by Volkoff's men waiting outside the apartment. Mary then holds Volkoff at gunpoint, forcing him to release Chuck and Sarah. Volkoff hesitates to release them, but immediately had them released after she tells him that she would not love a man who would threaten her son. Volkoff leaves Burbank and has all of his operatives within the area as well as the Buy More to leave Burbank, with not a single person harmed. The Hydra Network Main article: Hydra Network Mary's original assignment twenty years ago, was to locate and retrieve the Hydra Network. It is a network that allows Volkoff to manipulate and monitor all of his operatives without them knowing. Mary has been well aware of Volkoff monitoring his operatives, as she had shot Chuck during a supposed weapons transaction, whom was under the guise of Charles Carmichael at the time. In , Mary aids Sarah (joined Volkoff Industries after staging an act of treason) into finding the Hydra Network. She has Volkoff send Sarah to break out once trusted bodyguard of Volkoff now prisoner; Yuri Gobrienko, as he is linked to the Hydra. After rescuing, they discovered that the Hydra was a device, in the form a fake eyeball that belongs to Yuri. The two later on were brought to The Contessa with Volkoff, a ship that houses the Hydra database. They were later met with Chuck and Morgan, where they attempt to infiltrate the database. After being caught by Volkoff, he takes her as prisoner, but still treats her with affection for the fact that he still loves her. With Chuck previously in the database with her, he had tempered with the machines, sending a message to Volkoff through the Hydra's interface, as Chuck pretends to be Orion by asking him to come to Stephen's house, the Pine Cabin. The Hydra network was later completely uploaded to Orion's computers at the Pine Cabin after having Volkoff do a voice recognition passcode for his Hydra network. Granddaughter After successfully bringing down Volkoff Industries and the Hydra network, the Bartowski family with Morgan and Sarah, rush back to Burbank, in time for Ellie to give birth to Mary's granddaughter, Clara Woodcomb. While there, the doctor asks for only one relative to come and comfort Ellie through her delivery, the family all agreed that Mary should be in the room with her, which brings joy to Ellie as she never would have thought that Mary would came. Category:Characters Category:Volkoff's Agents